But reading this thread has made me realise that it should have been easy, Gandalf after all takes on far greater dangers in the Rings trilogy. It's an extremely one sided battle. Hobo Demi-God VS Morbidly obese, Dickensian goblin.

Barry Humphries was great (pardon the pun) as the Great Goblin though. I was expecting him to be far more screechy and hot headed, not articulate and mocking. I thought his delivery of his "But you don't have a home..." line to Thorin was brilliant. Yes, my username is terrible.

I can understand a lot of criticisms, but some are on how Tolkien wrote things. If the book had it a certain way, then following the book is always the correct decision.

Hm - not sure about that. I do agree that it should be easy to kill him... but I disagree that sticking with Tolkien is always the correct decision. Especially with the Hobbit material.

Agreed, thought perhaps not "especially" without supporting analysis. I'm fond of the expression, "Sacred cows make great hamburger." Nobody is perfect, including J.R.R. Tolkien, so I would definitely accept improvements to something J.R.R. could have done better that are self-consistent with the rest of his universe and done with wisdom, respect and a good knowledge of the lore.

It's all down to Gandalf once he shows up. He's a wizard. If he can take out a Balrog he can dispatch the GG pretty easily. He can also give protection to the party so that they survive the falls, etc. Over all, however I think there was a bit too much danger from dangling over great heights thurout the film, it was a bit overused.

"Hear me, hounds of Sauron, Gandalf is here! Fly if you value your foul skins, I will shrivel you from tail to snout if you step within this circle!"

"Do not be to eager to deal out death in judgement. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."

Didn't seem too easy, but I hated the Great Goblin's last line...
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I didn't really mind that it was over so quickly - it's not like there's a lack of conflict elsewhere in the movie. I also don't feel that strongly about the falling bridge. I can't stand the Great Goblin's last line, though. I've seen it a couple times when the theater was quite crowded, and I don't think anyone laughed at it.

The Great Goblin is shown to hate Gandalf and the dwarves, so why on earth would he philosophically say "that'll do it" when he's defeated by them, instead of cursing them or crying out in pain? And given his earlier confidence, why isn't he more surprised? Even with all the CGI, it feels like the most unrealistic thing in the entire film to me.

Tolkien wrote it that way. He should have died the way the book had it though...the lights go out and Gandalf is there killing The Great Goblin instantly, no bridge falling, stupid lines, or complete absense of physics.

I can understand a lot of criticisms, but some are on how Tolkien wrote things. If the book had it a certain way, then following the book is always the correct decision.

with how easily the GG was killed by Gandalf. Gandalf, an Istari, one of the most powerful beings in Middle earth even at that time, armed with a legendary magical sword? Yup, I have no problem with it from that perspective.

I didn't particularly like the death quip though. In fact there are too many stupid inventions like this through all of PJ's ME films.

So too the bridge fall. It just went on far too long.

Personally, even when watching fantasy, I like to see the laws of the physical world adhered to to some extent.